Helga's Cup
by shelob89
Summary: The mystery of Voldemort's last horcrux


**Helga's Cup**

It was a dark, moonless night at the Malfoy mansion. The air was still and quiet. Only the grumblings of a sleeping graphorn-guard were heard in the silence of the night, if there was anyone awake to hear them. There was someone awake, in fact, three somebodies. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all creeping silently away from the draught-of-living-death-drugged graphorn. They entered the house, Hermione carrying a black, fluffy, super-niffler in her arms.

As soon as they snuck in, they let loose the niffler, and it began running around the room, sniffing with its long nose. Suddenly, it stopped and tried to dig into the floor with its mole-like claws. Harry, Hermione, and Ron understood immediately, the chamber that contained Helga Hufflepuff's cup was directly beneath them. The niffler could detect the golden object from a distance, because of its strange powers; it was a horcrux. In fact, the golden cup was the last horcrux, Voldemort's last bit of "external" soul, which they had to destroy before Harry could kill Voldemort.

They had to break into to that secret chamber and destroy the cup within it. Hermione, of course, knew the spell for opening hidden ways, and made a silent spell. The floor popped open and revealed a staircase disappearing into the darkness. They all thought "lumos" and their wands lit. As they descended the stairs, the floor closed again with an ominous click. They looked around them and realized the room was filled with sinister-looking objects and treasures of all sorts. "Oh no!" whispered Ron, "maybe the niffler was just detecting these glittery objects." "I know the cup is here; Dobby told me so." Harry assured him, "Let's look around before we panic." The trio looked around and panicked; there was no golden cup! "It wouldn't be sitting here for everyone to see," said Hermione, "Let's think."

However, they didn't have to think too much. Voldemort, in his usual, cliché way, made it rather obvious. A message appeared on the wall in shimmering blood drops: "Leave now, before darkness envelopes you, and death surrounds you" it warned. Hermione mumbled an incantation quietly while drawing a rectangle around the words with her wand. The lines shone for a moment and then a hole appeared there. Inside, was a ghostly hand, and it leapt out at them. The hand grasped Ron's throat tightly, causing him to gasp and gag for air. Quickly, Harry jabbed his wand and muttered a spell. A stream of warm light poured out of the tip of the wand and surrounded the hand. The hand vanished. Suddenly, water began pouring out of an invisible crack in the floor. The water foamed and splashed at their feet as they pulled the cup out of the hole in the wall. As they ran up the steps, the water continued filling the chamber, reaching up to their waists, even as they rose higher above the floor of the room. "Quick, open the trapdoor!" whispered Harry urgently to Hermione. "I can't, my spell isn't working!" Hermione almost screamed back. Harry pointed his wand at the trapdoor and desperately thought "reducto!" The trapdoor broke into pieces with a crash. "Run!" said Harry "they must have woken up." They ran out of the mansion, past the graphorn, and out the gates. Then they turned on their heels and disappeared.

Almost instantly, Harry appeared alone on a road leading to a dilapidated house with an overgrown garden. Harry put down the cup, pointed his wand at it, and said "reducto", and again, the cup shattered into small pieces. Harry walked down the road to the house quickly and purposefully, but his heart throbbing rapidly in his chest. He entered the house, and quietly crept towards the dining room, which had a greenish light emanating from it. He looked into the room and there was Voldemort, seating by a green fire with Nagini's dead body beside him. Harry pointed the wand at him and thought "Avada Kedavra." "Don't waste your tiny brain" said Voldemort "you can't kill me." "Yes I can," replied Harry "I killed Nagini, I destroyed the diary, I broke the locket, Dumbledore neutralized the ring, I got rid of Ravenclaw's book, and just now I shattered Hufflepuff's cup." "Silly boy, the last horcrux was Gryffindor's sword. Why do you think I came to Hogwarts to ask for a job? You think I thought Dumbledore would have me be a teacher? I wanted to make the sword a horcrux." Voldemort laughed evilly (as all bad guys do). "And now, I get to kill you, because you know the truth: Avada Kedavra."


End file.
